Seattle/King County homeless count and beds by type, 2012-2026

What this dataset measures

Shows what shelter and housing capacity King County added while its homeless count grew, using HUD's own inventory, and puts King County's capacity in context with the same 67 large CoCs used in homelessness-rate-vs-rent.

Geography

King County, WA, Seattle, WA, United States

Unit of observation

CoC by count year

Update cadence

Annually, after HUD releases PIT and HIC data by CoC

Curator

FactHub

Curated data tables

Seattle/King County homeless count and beds by type, 2012-2026

King County (WA-500) rows from hic-panel, plus KCRHA's initial 2026 count (no 2026 bed data).

Unit of observation: Year

king_count_beds.csv text/csv · 1.6 KB (1,625 bytes)

All 15 rows 16 columns Download the file

All 15 rows

year	source	count_type	pit_total people	pit_sheltered people	pit_unsheltered people	unsheltered_carried_forward	es_beds beds	th_beds beds	sh_beds beds	rrh_beds beds	psh_beds beds	oph_beds beds	temp_beds beds	perm_beds beds	temp_beds_per_homeless beds per person
2012	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	8899	6281	2618	0	2590	4102	45	—	4225	—	6737	4225	0.757
2013	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	9106	6370	2736	0	2645	4111	45	47	4365	—	6801	4412	0.747
2014	HUD	Sheltered-Only Count	8949	6213	2736	1	2754	3865	45	78	4687	0	6664	4765	—
2015	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	10122	6319	3803	0	2828	3579	45	1326	4675	1420	6452	7421	0.637
2016	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	10730	6225	4505	0	3083	3358	45	2291	4848	1411	6486	8550	0.604
2017	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	11643	6158	5485	0	3498	2902	45	781	5469	2086	6445	8336	0.554
2018	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	12112	5792	6320	0	3842	2578	50	1068	5767	1794	6470	8629	0.534
2019	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	11199	5971	5228	0	4540	2129	45	1102	6066	1652	6714	8820	0.6
2020	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	11751	6173	5578	0	4857	2131	84	964	6249	1731	7072	8944	0.602
2021	HUD	Sheltered-Only Count	5183	5183	0	1	4070	1884	84	1207	6266	1594	6038	9067	—
2022	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	13368	5683	7685	0	5376	1966	76	1463	6785	2848	7418	11096	0.555
2023	HUD	Sheltered-Only Count*	14149	6464	7685	1	5288	1890	76	1247	7251	4057	7254	12555	—
2024	HUD	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	16868	7058	9810	0	5173	1742	76	1990	7768	1505	6991	11263	0.414
2025	HUD	Sheltered-Only Count	16936	7126	9810	1	5958	1712	76	2388	8034	1757	7746	12179	—
2026	KCRHA initial release	Sheltered and Unsheltered Count	18365	6536	11829	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

16 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Count year	—	observed
source	string	HUD, or KCRHA initial release for 2026	—	derived
count_type	string	HUD PIT count type	—	observed
pit_total	integer	People counted homeless	people	observed
pit_sheltered	integer	People counted in shelter	people	observed
pit_unsheltered	integer	People counted unsheltered	people	observed
unsheltered_carried_forward	integer	1 if the unsheltered figure is not from a new count that year: HUD carried it forward from the previous count (2014, 2023, 2025) or recorded 0 because no unsheltered count was done (2021)	—	derived
es_beds	integer	HUD year-round emergency shelter beds	beds	observed
th_beds	integer	HUD year-round transitional housing beds	beds	observed
sh_beds	integer	HUD year-round safe haven beds	beds	observed
rrh_beds	integer	HUD year-round rapid re-housing beds	beds	observed
psh_beds	integer	HUD year-round permanent supportive housing beds	beds	observed
oph_beds	integer	HUD year-round other permanent housing beds	beds	observed
temp_beds	integer	ES + TH + SH	beds	derived
perm_beds	integer	RRH + PSH + OPH	beds	derived
temp_beds_per_homeless	number	temp_beds / pit_total; blank in sheltered-only years	beds per person	derived

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build_hic.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 4.9 KB (4,976 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds hic-panel from the HUD HIC workbook sheets (exported to CSV) and the PIT/ACS panel.

• analyze_hic.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 6.5 KB (6,702 bytes)

  Node.js script for the cross-CoC bed comparisons in the method notes.

• csvlib.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 1.1 KB (1,139 bytes)

  CSV helper used by the HIC scripts.

• build_count_beds.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 24.9 KB (25,500 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds king-count-beds and the saved analyses in this dataset.

• findings-hic.md Documentation · text/markdown · 16.2 KB (16,567 bytes)

  Method notes, King County and cross-CoC results, and caveats for the bed-capacity data.

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

• Homelessness rate vs. rent in 67 large U.S. Continuums of Care, 2015-2025 Version 1

  Population and CoC geography for beds per 10,000 residents.

Sources

1. HUD, 2007-2025 Housing Inventory Count by CoC (AHAR Part 1 data) Year-round, seasonal and overflow beds by project type for each CoC and year. Downloaded from the Internet Archive because huduser.gov blocks scripted requests; contentDigest is the SHA-256 of the downloaded workbook (2,598,803 bytes).

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. U.S. government work (public domain). Public domain; not rehosted here.

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

2. HUD, 2007-2025 Point-in-Time Counts by CoC (AHAR Part 1 data) Total, sheltered and unsheltered counts and count type. contentDigest is the SHA-256 of the workbook downloaded from the archived copy.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. U.S. government work (public domain). Public domain; not rehosted here.

   Archived copy captured May 30, 2026

3. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, table B01003 (population) Resident population used for beds per 10,000 residents (via dataset homelessness-rate-vs-rent).

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. U.S. government work (public domain). Public domain.

4. KCRHA, 2026 Point-in-Time Count FAQs (initial release), June 23, 2026 King County 2026 count (18,365 total; 6,536 sheltered; 11,829 unsheltered), table on p.3. HUD had not yet published 2026 data.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public agency document. Linked, not rehosted.

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

5. KCRHA, 2024 Point-in-Time Count FAQ v2 Documents the respondent-driven sampling method used since 2022.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public agency document. Linked, not rehosted.

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Export the HUD HIC workbook sheets to CSV, run hic-build-script against them and the panel from dataset homelessness-rate-vs-rent, then run count-beds-script (Node.js).

• HIC beds are inventory on the count night, not occupancy.
• King County's count method changed in 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2026; HUD carried unsheltered counts forward in 2014, 2023 and 2025.
• Permanent housing beds serve people who are no longer counted as homeless.
• Rapid re-housing beds depend on grant funding and swing year to year.
• Descriptive data; no causal claims.